The present invention relates to an edible dough with ridges and a method for making the ridged dough.
Food manufacturers have made advances over the past two decades in the mass production of composite foods. Composite foods are foods having at least two components. Typically, the components have different textures, different moistures and, frequently, different phases.
For one type of composite food, one component encloses another component. This type of composite food includes filled foods such as dough-enrobed pies or rolls. The filled foods include a filling such as egg roll ingredients, pizza ingredients, burrito ingredients, casserole ingredients, pie ingredients or any other sweet or savory food filling, and an outer edible container that contains the filling. Both of the components may be cooked once the composite food is formed. The filled composite foods are frequently prefrozen and are made ready to serve by a consumer, usually by reheating.
One problem that has plagued manufacturers of filled composite foods, particularly frozen filled foods, is migration of moisture from the filling to the edible food container. Much of the migration occurs when the frozen food is reheated by the consumer or becomes thawed during distribution. The moisture migration tends to undermine the textural integrity of the edible food container. In particular, the edible food container becomes soggy.
The Totino et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,659, issued Oct. 9, 1979, describes a pizza crust that is made from a fried dough body. The crust includes dome shaped blisters. The blisters are each partially separated from the dough body by a cavity. The dough body is fried in a manner that concentrates fat at an outer surface of the dough body.
The Ricke patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,923, issued Aug. 19, 1986, describes a pizza dough that is embossed with a grid of intersecting lines. The intersecting lines create regular blisters in the dough. The lines are added to decrease delamination of the dough.
The Mani patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,705, issued Aug. 10, 1993, describes a method of making pita bread with a roller having a wavy pattern. The roller shapes a bread dough to have a middle thickness that is thinner than an outer edge thickness.
The Hunt et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,481, issued Nov. 27, 1990, describes a corrugated chip dough. The corrugated dough is deep fried to make a chip having a strength that can withstand dipping. Grains used to make the dough include corn-based grains and potato-based grains. A corrugated pattern described is a waffle-shaped pattern.